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Just to establish the context, I have been playing RPGs since the early 1980s. I cut my teeth on AD&D and SPI's original DragonQuest. I played a lot of 3.5, and lately my regular group has been playing an OSR inspired home brew. I am running Dragon Age for a bunch of first time players who were introduced to the hobby with this game.
So are these adventures any good?
Without exception- yes! My review of the adventure in the GMs kit was middling. I did not think it was terrible, but thought it read better than it played. Let's run them down in order, as it is the order my group played them in.
Amber Rage
Of the three adventures this is the one I enjoyed running the most. I have tried to run undead adventures/campaigns in a fantasy setting before with mixed results. This adventure is a very good execution of that idea. It feels a bit like 28 Days later, set during a medieval festival. First off, the stakes are much higher here than in The Dalish Curse or A Bann Too Many. Or if not higher, at least the outcomes are more influenced by the PCs choices. In order to save their friends and the townsfolk, the players are going to have to explicitly decide that other people will have to die. The adventure also has a definite "race against time" feel built right into the structure. For those who think that Dragon Age did not live up to it's billing as "Dark Fantasy", I think this adventure (if not the whole adventure pack) will change your mind. The setting itself has dark trappings, but in the early games felt pretty traditional in terms of play. The difficult moral choices that players have to make here definitely make the tone here darker.
Where Eagle's Lair
If Amber Rage was my favorite to run, my players seemed to enjoy playing through Where Eagles Lair the most. At points it had a very epic feel to it. One comparison my players drew was to The Two Towers (film version). Specifically the battle at Helm's Deep. I would say it was not that epic, but the players really felt the pressure and tension during the main battle. It also introduces us to the Avaars, and contains some good (if brief) background material on their culture and its ways. One of the PCs in my group has a background where he hates Avaars, and this made for some good role-playing opportunities and player interaction. Dragon Age is often compared to 4E in that both are combat heavy. While this adventure is combat heavy, I felt that the roleplaying opportunities in this adventure certainly made it feel more balanced than the 4E games I have participated in. I could also be that my 4E DM lacked imagination.
A Fragile Web
As the Blood in Ferelden set progresses, the adventures get a bit more complex. In Amber Rage, the characters have to make tough choices but the path is pretty clear. In Where Eagles Lair, the characters have some things to noodle out. This last full adventure ups the ante. The story it self is a mystery that must be solved. And ultimately the players must decide if action should be taken. The writer does a good job of coaching the GM through how to handle player choices. What will the players do with the knowledge they acquire? Here again are the tough moral choices that this game tries to focus on. I won't say more about the plot, as to not ruin the fun. But I will say that you should read all of the adventures in the set before running this one. The author suggests that other adventures could be inserted during the course of A Fragile Web as a way to pull a campaign together. I did not do this as I had a campaign structure in place, but it is a good suggestion if you are looking for an anchor for your campaign.
The Adventure Seeds
I used the first one as a bridge between adventures and read through the others. They are all basic RPG adventure ideas with an interesting twist. The basic plot is laid out for you, but encounters themselves need to be generated. An experienced GM should not have any trouble preparing them for play, or even running them off the cuff. In fact for those who prefer adventures with more opportunity for improv these might make for a better experience.
A General Note
My group enjoyed these because I took the time to string them together, and make them personal. In each case I created a personal stake for the players. You could run them without doing that, and I think you would still have a good time. But you will have a better time if you do a little leg work in advance. If you are looking to start a campaign in the world of Dragon Age, this adventure pack is a great place to start.
The Look
I love the look of the Dragon Age books. I like the illustration style, particularly the maps. They have a hand drawn look that I found very involving as a GM. I used the PDF version of the book on my iPad and it looked great. I have one complaint. Some of the images appear in "negative" when viewed on my iPad. I tried several different readers (GoodReader, iBooks) and had the same problem everywhere. That is mostly the reason for the 4 out of 5 rating. The other reasons are lack of color on the interior, and reuse of the cover art from the GMs screen.
Thanks for reading this review and please let me know what your experiences with the game are.
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